Tuesday, 9 October 2018

NHS Pirates, reposted. SERCO is only part of our problem

“Illness is
neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence
for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune, the cost of
which should be shared by the community” Aneurin Bevan

“Capitalism is
the astounding belief that the most wicked of men will do the most
wicked of things for the greatest good of everyone.” JM
Keynes

Virgin Care leads
the way in negating the founding principles of the NHS whilst
claiming to promote the greatest good. So I will start with
them.Over the past seven years they have been awarded NHS
contracts worth over £2 billion. By this year, they were running
over 400 NHS services.Virgin Care has
two arms to its business in the NHS: primary care services, including
GP services and community-based NHS services.In January 2018
Virgin Care Private was launched, opening its first health and
wellbeing centre in Birmingham.This centre provides GP services,
specialist consultations, diagnostics and tests on a pay-as-you-go
service.The company
targets large contracts containing numerous services in the area of
community health and social care. Since 2012 they have won these
contracts in over seven UK regions.When Virgin Care has failed to
win contacts it has resorted to legal action. The full amount paid to
date to Virgin by you and me as taxpayers could be as high as £2.6
million.Labour MP Paula
Sherriff, revealed that when she worked for Virgin Care the company
insisted on “extra consultations before surgery, boosting their
profits at the expense of the taxpayer and patient safety”.The parent
company, Virgin Group Holdings Ltd, is registered in the British
Virgin Islands. Richard Branson and his family hold a £2.7 billion
stake in this offshore, tax-free, tax-haven company.Virgin is just
the tip of the scalpel.NHS Support
Federation, reveals that profit-driven companies such as Bupa, Virgin
Care and Care UK have in the last four years won more than 130 NHS
service contracts worth £2.6bn to provide NHS services. Dr Mark
Porter, of the British Medical Association, said: “These figures
show the extent of privatisation in the NHS following the pushing
through of the Health and Social Care Act. An act that the government
denied loud and long would lead to privatisation, has done exactly
that. Enforcing competition has not only fragmented services and
compromised the delivery of high-quality care, but it is also
diverting vital funding away from frontline services to costly,
complicated tendering processes, highlighting just how
counterproductive the reorganisation has been.”At the beginning
of 2017 private-sector companies had been invited to bid for 14% more
NHS contracts than a year previously. According to the Department of
Health accounts, the private sector delivered a total of £8.7bn of
NHS services for 2015/16, or around 7.6 per cent of the total NHS
budget. These figures exclude GP services, dentistry and community
pharmacy.David Hare, chief executive of the Partners Network,
which represents private sector providers, has said there was a slow
“evolutionary trajectory” of greater private sector involvement
in the NHS.So who, alongside
Richard Branson and his family, are a part of this trajectory? These
are the 'privateers' I have discovered. There are others. 32 to date and counting.

Gemini
- IT support for NHSGeneral Healthcare - a private specialist in
fertility treatment.HCA International - Through US companies
Tenet Healthcare and Aspen Healthcare provide “opportunities to
work with and support the NHS.IBM - Electronic staff records
services to NHS, payroll, pensions and other human resources
functions.InHealth Group - diagnostics for NHS throughout the
UK.McKesson - IT supportMouchel - Commissioning
services.Nector Primecare - Home care, care homes, mental health
services, children’s services, out-of-hours, dentistry and primary
care.Netcare - Clinics set up iby South African company, which
works under contract to the NHS.Optimum - part of of US United
Health Group which works with the NHS to provide services such as
contract negotiations and medication management.Partnership in
Care – Working with NHS as provider of secure mental health
facilities across the UK. Working with the NHS.Pathology First
LLP - pathology services to NHS Foundation Trusts.The Practice -
75% owned by US company Centene, providing primary care services and
specialist clinical services to GPs.Priory Group - Provider of
acute mental health care, complex care and neuro-rehabilitation
services, fostering and care homes.Ramsay UK - 22 hospitals in
the UK delivering both private treatment and care under contract to
the NHSSerco with an annual turnover in excess of £3 bn, it operates prisons and immigration detention centres, provides support to the military and manages healthcare facilities.

An
historical note on pirates: Richard Branson has a home on Necker
Island, part of the British Virgin Isles. In the 17th century these
islands were a centre of piracy. Yes I know peg-legged, one-eyed,
walk-the-plank buccaneers. The truth is the 'pirates' were often
escaped black slaves who set up a Pirate's Republic in the area. The
Jack Sparrow / Jonny Depp characterisation is myth which has become
reality in our times with the arrival of the real Jack Sparrow in the form of Richard Branson.